The coding of the Piano Black theme calls for a black background but allows selection of a colored or an image background. There is nothing wrong with the theme. You control the background color selection here > Appearance > Background and I see a deep purple background using Firefox 26 - not a gray one.

You do not need to load the design tools unless you have the Custom Design upgrade. All of these functions can be accessed from your dashboard - without loading the custom design tools - no upgrade required.
Appearance > Header
Appearance > Background
Appearance > Theme Options (applicable only to some themes)
Settings > Reading (set a static front page)
Site Title and Tagline > Settings > General

If you are using the preview mode for the Custom Design upgrade some of the settings in that mode will save but they won't show up on the front end unless you purchase the upgrade.

To go back to the free options, go to Appearance → Themes → Customize → Colors and click the "exit the preview" link in yellow at the top of the panel on the right.

sorry you are not following the point i am making. i am not using any of the premium custom tools nor am i using any free trial of them. i am describing a discrepancy between WHAT YOU SEE, and WHAT YOU GET. What i am seeing in the theme customiser this is not what i am getting when viewing the page this. this is outside of post/page formatting this is part of the theme. please review again. please fix this discrepancy and please make it nice and purpley text, as you see here.

nope same problem exists. What i am seeing is not what i am getting. you also just destroyed the beautiful colour i picked originally, so i would appreciate it if you would put it back.

The (default, free, non trial) theme editor shades the theme text from the set background colour. This effect does not happen when the page is viewed outside the editor. The text colour is not being saved. Please fix this.

I'm sorry if your background color was altered. Usually resetting the colors in the Customizer fixes any odd colors while maintaining the background color. Unfortunately I don't know what your background color was previously, so you'll need to reset that yourself. Sorry about that.

When I go to your blog, I see text color that is red, pink and yellow within the first few posts. I also see a yellow header and blue background right now. Is that what you were trying to accomplish?

Okay, now I think I understand. The default color for this theme, for your post titles, sidebar, meta tags (the date, etc.) and menu, is the grey that you see on your blog.

The Customize window is a preview mode. To make the text purple on your live blog like you see there, you will need the Custom Design upgrade so you can modify your text colors. If you get the upgrade and change the background color in the Customizer window, your text will change as well.

and as i said before i am not using the custom design to see this. this is part of the basic theme that is not being carried over.

"The (default, free, non trial) theme editor shades the theme text from the set background colour. This effect does not happen when the page is viewed outside the editor. The text colour is not being saved. Please fix this."

What you see when you're on the customize page is just a preview for what it could look like if you have the Custom Design upgrade, but is not going to necessarily match what the live site shows.

If you go to that page in the Piano Black theme and click on a color in the top left circle for the site's background color, it will change both the color of the background to whatever you've chosen and will modify the color of the text on the page to a lighter version of the same color. However, that is just a preview, and the colors will not be applied to your live blog page. This is intentional behavior and is not a bug.

To get what you see on the customizer page to show up on your live site, you will need the upgrade.

then i sugest you stop touting your service as WYSIWYG and call it what you see is what you get if you pay for it. i will state again implicitly that i am viewing content that is free and not part of any paid for add on or trial. if it isn't a bug then it's false advertising.
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